M. VAN BUREN.

Mr. Fox to Mr. Forsyth.

WASHINGTON, March 13, 1840.

Hon. JOHN FORSYTH, etc.: 

The undersigned, Her Britannic Majesty’s envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary, has been instructed by his Government to make the following communication to the Secretary of State of the United States in reference to the boundary negotiation and the affairs of the disputed territory.

Her Majesty’s Government have had under their consideration the official note addressed to the undersigned by the Secretary of State of the United States on the 24th of last December in reply to a note from the undersigned of the 2d of November preceding, in which the undersigned protested in the name of his Government against the extensive system of aggression pursued by the people of the State of Maine within the disputed territory, to the prejudice of the rights of Great Britain and in manifest violation of the provisional agreements entered into between the authorities of the two countries at the beginning of the last year.

Her Majesty’s Government have also had their attention directed to the public message transmitted by the governor of Maine to the legislature of the State on the 3d of January of the present year.

Upon a consideration of the statements contained in these two official documents, Her Majesty’s Government regret to find that the principal acts of encroachment which were denounced and complained of on the part of Great Britain, so far from being either disproved or discontinued or satisfactorily explained by the authorities of the State of Maine, are, on the contrary, persisted in and publicly avowed.

Her Majesty’s Government have consequently instructed the undersigned once more formally to protest against those acts of encroachment and aggression.

Her Majesty’s Government claim and expect, from the good faith of the Government of the United States, that the people of Maine shall replace themselves in the situation in which they stood before the agreements of last year were signed; that they shall, therefore, retire from the valley of the St. John and confine themselves to the valley of the Aroostook; that they shall occupy that valley in a temporary manner only, for the purpose, as agreed upon, of preventing depredations; and that they shall not construct fortifications nor make roads or permanent settlements.

Until this be done by the people of the State of Maine, and so long as that people shall persist in the present system of aggression, Her Majesty’s Government will feel it their duty to make such military arrangements as may be required for the protection of Her Majesty’s rights.  And Her Majesty’s Government deem it right to declare that if the result of the unjustifiable proceedings of the State of Maine should be collision between Her Majesty’s troops and the people of that State the responsibility of all the consequences that may ensue therefrom, be they what they may, will rest with the people and Government of the United States.